Runaway
by The Little Witch
Summary: Sara's got a secret but she's too afrais to tell anyone. Totaly Snickers!


Note: I wrote this fic a while ago, and I hope you guys like it! Fluff warning!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sara sat on the edge of her bed thinking it all through again. Every time she thought about it she came to the same conclusion. _'I have to get out of here…' _In a few minutes she had to go work. She stood up and started picking out clothes to put in her bag. She and Nick had been going out for about almost two months now and the entire lab knew about it. She loved him, and she knew that he loved her. Still, she couldn't help herself, this was something she couldn't tell him.

The night shift wasn't that hard and as soon Sara got the chance she asked Grissom of she could leave early. Since nothing had happened so far on the shift he said she could. She avoided everyone on her way to the locker room. But when she was on her way out to the parking lot she bumped into the one person she was actually afraid to face.

"Hey, where you going?" Nick asked her and took her by the hand.

"Well, it's not exactly a busy night so Grissom told me I could go home, I'm pretty tiered."

"Oh, okay…" She was about to walk away again but he didn't let go of her hand. "Sara, is something wrong? You've been avoiding me for days now."

"No I haven't… I'm just tired, I need to get some sleep." She looked into his eyes and they looked just as worried as she felt. She tried to smile and he let go.

"Call me when you've slept, we'll go and eat something, okay?" Sara just nodded and walked away. Nick stood there by himself, wondering what went wrong.

Sara sat down and took a deep breath. That went good. Suddenly she felt a pain in the middle of her stomach and she put her hands on it. When she thought about it, it was better to bump in to Nick then Catherine, she would have noticed, she would have known. When Sara got home again she took the bag she'd been packing the night before and threw it over one shoulder. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. She thought about what to write but dieted to keep it short.

'_Nick, I'm sorry about this… _

_I had to get away, please don't look for me. _

_Love, Sara.'_

She left the note on the table, she and Nick had exchanged keys for a few weeks ago and Sara knew that of she didn't call him and didn't answer the phone he'd come by sooner or later.

She sighed, took her purse and left the apartment.

Nick went back to the break room and sat down in one of the couches. Catherine came in and looked at him, he had a puzzled look on his face.

"What's wrong?" She asked him.

"Nothing… Sara just said she had to go home, it doesn't seem like Sara, you know? She usually stays here as long as possible…"

"Well, did she say something, why she had to go home?"

"No, and she's been avoiding me for days now… feels like I've done something wrong, just can't figure out what…"

"I'm gonna call her… see what's going on." Catherine said and left the room before Nick could stop her. Catherine called her at home, no one was there. She tried her cell phone.

'_Hi, you've reached Sara Sidle, I'm not available so leave a message or call back later!'_ Catherine let out a sigh but decided to leave a message.

"Hi, it's me, where are you? Call me."

Sara drove the car out on the highway. She didn't know when Nick would call so she'd turned of her cell before she left. She put on some music as the car drove by the '_Thank you for visiting Vegas!_' sign. The window on the driver's side was open and made Sara's hair fly in the air. She didn't know where she was going. Only that she couldn't stay in Vegas. They hadn't planned this, it was way too soon for this, but what was she supposed to do? Before she knew it she felt the burning tears streaming down her cheek.

Nick came out of the hot shower he had taken. He had been home for almost an hour now and Sara hadn't called yet. Another thirty minutes went by and Nick got restless. He dialled Sara's number and waited. No one was home. _'That's weird, maybe she on her way here?' _He called her on the cell phone but got right to the mailbox.

"Hey Sara, it's me Nick. What's going on, where are you? Call me as soon as you can. Love you, bye." He sighed. Where could she be? _'Maybe she just forgot about the breakfast… '_ But that didn't sound right. So when he was going to their regular breakfast place he drove by her place to see if she was there. He knocked on her door first. When no one came he took out his keys and opened the door. Everything looked as it used to. He walked into the bedroom and saw the closet door wide open. Clothes were lying on the bed. He called her name and ran out to the kitchen. He was just about to go into the bathroom when a little white note got his attention. As he read it a shadow came over his face. _'No…no, Sara what've you done!'_

After been driving three hours Sara realized that she had to decide where she was going. She looked around to see where she was. She had never been here before, and she hardly recognized any of the places on the signs. She continued driving and thought that when she needed to sleep she'd pull over and see where she'd ended up. After a few hours she felt her eyes starting to close, she could hardy keep them open. She slowed down and looked around. She drove for a while until she found a little nice hotel. She parked her car and paid for one night. When she saw the huge bed she didn't care about chancing clothes. She just closed the door and walked over to the bed. She could finally breathe out. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she could feel a knot growing in her throat. _'Why'd you have to run?'_ She felt another pain in her stomach and grabbed her waist with her hands. _'I'd love a drink right now' _she thought and glanced over to the room service menu. _'The one time I could actually need alcohol and I'm not aloud to drink it.'_

Nick had been calling people the whole day. First all of their co workers, then all their friends. He'd even called their parents, but nobody seemed to know where she was. He was so frustrated. He tried to call her cell phone again but got the same results as before. Every time he'd called he left another message, every time repeating that he loved her. He was really worried, Catherine and Warrick had tried there best to calm him down.

"She'll be back, you known she will." Warrick said with a frown on his face.

"Yeah, she probably just needs a few days to cool off." Catherine added.

"Cool off from what?" Was Nick's reply.

"I don't know… But she said not to look for her, maybe she'll call soon."

"Yeah, and she didn't take all off her clothes, she has to come back sometime!" It wasn't much for a comfort but it was nice to hear his friends try to calm him.

The next morning Sara realized she had to turn her phone on. She looked at the blue screen: '17 missed calls. 14 new messengers.' Sara shook her head. _'I must really scared them…'_ She looked through the list of people that had called. Most of them were from Nick, but a few were from her parents and co workers. Then she listened to the messengers. She started crying when she heard Nick's concerned voice telling her he would always love her. _'But if you knew you probably wouldn't love me… If you found out about it you'd leave me… You'd hate me…'_ She was about to call her parents to tell them she was okay when the phone rang. She stopped breathing and looked from who it was. 'Catherine Willows' the text appeared on the screen. Sara considered her choices. _'It just Cath, I can talk to her…'_

"Cath?" Sara asked into the phone.

"Sara? Oh my God! Sara, are you okay?" Catherine's voice was worried and Sara could imagine what her face looked like right about now. She felt the tears burning behind her eyes.

"I don't know…" Sara sobbed.

"Well where are you? What happened?"

"I'm at a hotel…"

"Sara, why'd you go?"

"I had to get away, please don't tell Nick where I am! I don't want him to find out, if he finds out he'll leave, and I don't want him to leave… I don't know what I'd do without him Cath!"

"Okay, Sara calm down, you don't want Nick to find out what?" She could hear Sara's breathing getting faster, then the phone hit something and she could hear footsteps running. Sara leaned over the toilet seat and threw up her breakfast. She started crying again. _'I hate this…'_ She could hear Catherine's voice call through the phone. Sara grabbed a towel and crawled back to the bed where her phone was lying.

"I'm sorry… morning sickness…" Sara mumbled without thinking.

"Morning sickness?" Catherine yelled. Sara's eyes went wide open.

"No, what? No, I didn't…"

"Sara, are you pregnant!" Sara put her palm to her forehead and begged that Catherine was alone at the time. She felt the pain in the stomach again and realized she couldn't lie now.

"Don't you dare tell Nick!" She replied with a shaking voice.

"How long have you known?" Catherine whispered.

"A bit over a week… I'm almost a month… I didn't know what to do, if Nick finds out he'll leave me! He doesn't want a baby! I don't even want a baby, but what am I supposed to do!" She cried.

"Look, Sara, this is Nick we're talking about! He wouldn't leave you! You haven't even given him the chance to think about it. But you've got to tell me where you are!"

"No… no, I need some time to think, to figure this all out, but please Cath do not tell Nick about this! You can't, I don't want him to know, please?"

"I won't tell him, but you really have to!"

"Yeah… someday… I gotta go… Bye."

"Okay, well Sara! Wait!" She yelled into the phone but the line was dead. _'Bye…'_

Sara closed the phone and put it back in the purse. She had to continue driving. She didn't know where but this was still too close to Vegas. She packed her things and left the hotel. She knew Catherine would call again so she turned off her phone. She just begged that Cath wouldn't tell Nick. She drove the whole day, with the wind in her hair and tears running down her cheeks. When the night came she noticed she was long from Vegas. She pulled over at a mountain and stepped out of the car. There was a high fence between the rode and the down hill, but you could still see through it and look down at a beautiful little town. Sara decided to stay close to here this night. Just a minute away she found an Inn owned by an old couple. She was dead tiered when she got to her room and pasted out on the bed.

Catherine did her best to avoid Nick and his worried ayes, but it wasn't that easy. She had called Sara one more time to see how she was. She was at a new place, even further away from Vegas than last time. And she still refused to tell them where she was. Catherine had said she'd call her again tomorrow right before the shift started. It was half an hour left. _'Am I really doing the right thing here, not telling Nick? Of course you are, you promised Sara to not tell Nick anything! But he has the right to know!'_ That was the thought running through her mind on the way to work. As she sat down in the break room she looked around to make sure she was alone. She took out the phone and dialled Sara's number.

"Catherine?" Sara's scared voice asked.

"Yeah, hi, how you doing tonight?"

"Not that great…" Catherine asked her some questions, trying to get to the subject of where she was hiding.

"C'mon Sara, we're really worried about you! All of us, Greg is going out of his mind, Warrick's lonely, Grissom's complaining about how hard it is without Sara around… And Nick… well Nick's just depressed in every possible way, he thinks you left because of him, that he did something wrong…"

"What? That's ridiculous!"

"I think he needs to hear it from you… Please Sara just tell me where you are!"

"Is that Sara on the phone!" Catherine jumped and turned around to see Nick standing in the break room, looking down at her. He looked horrible, he had black circles under his eyes and he looked as if he hadn't slept in days, which was probably the case here.

"Eeh… Uhm… I…" Catherine didn't know what to answer. On the other end she could hear Sara's concerted voice starting to yell.

"Is that Nick? Is he there? Did you tell him? You did didn't you!"

"No, I… I didn't…" was the only reply Catherine could come with. Nick took a step closer to Catherine and reached for the phone.

"Let me talk to her, please Cath!" His eyes were begging and Catherine didn't know on which side to stand on. She knew Sara didn't want to talk to Nick, she also knew how worried Nick was and that he needed to talk to Sara.

"I don't think that's a good idea right now…" Catherine said.

"What do you mean? Cath just let me talk to her…"

"Cath, please, don't. I don't think I can manage talking to him right now!" Catherine felt as if she was torn in two directions. But she didn't have to decide. She heard a click and she knew that Sara had turned her phone off. Catherine slowly shut her own phone and tried to escape from Nick's eyes.

"She hung up…" she said.

"How long have you been talking to her?" Nick asked.

"Since yesterday… I tried calling her, and she picked up…"

"Why didn't you tell me!" Nick yelled.

"She made me promise not to!" She knew by the look of Nick's face that he didn't really care about all of this. He was just feeling bad about everything.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, she didn't wanna tell me… I'm telling the truth!" She added when she saw the look on his face. He nodded slowly and sat down on the couch beside her.

"Why'd she run?" He asked.

"You need to ask her that…" Catherine mumbled.

"How am I supposed to ask her if she won't pick up when I call her, when she won't return any of my calls and when I have no idea where she is!" Catherine sighed.

"Just give her time…" she stood up and put a friendly hand on his shoulder. "She'll come back sooner or later." She said and left the room for Nick to think.

Sara sat down on the bed and buried her face in her cupped hands. She felt her tears starting to fall again. _'This isn't like me… I never cry like this! I guess all those stories about hormones aren't just stories after all…'_ She prayed that Nick hadn't found out. She needed time, and she wouldn't get time with her co workers looking over her shoulders all the time. She had already decided to stay here until she was ready to go back. It was far away from Vegas, it wasn't that expensive and the place was really beautiful. It had been almost three days since she disappeared from Las Vegas. She didn't really miss it, but it felt weird being somewhere else but Vegas. That night Sara didn't get much sleep. She was worried about what Nick would say when he found out. She was scared of what she'd have to face when she returned back home. She was terrified of the thing growing in her body. She woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat and tears. She reached for the phone and in the dark bed she slowly made the call.

It was four am and Warrick and Catherine were on their way back from a crime scene. A man had been shot in the back of his head and no one had heard the shot. Just as Warrick parked the car in front of the CSI Catherine's phone rang.

"Huh, probably Brass letting us know about another case." She joked as she searched for the phone in her jacket.

"Tell him we're already busy…" Warrick replied with a smile.

"Willows." She answered. She could hear someone sniffing in the other end and she thought it might by Lindsay, she had gotten a cold at school a few days ago.

"Catherine?" The voice muttered. That was enough to catch her attention.

"Sara?" Catherine stopped and listened to the sobbing.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't know who else to call… I'm not sure about this!"

"Sure about what? What happened, what's going on?"

"Sure about the pregnancy thing! I mean, I'm not ready for this!" Catherine had never heard Sara like this. She was scared and confused, she could tell just by her voice.

"Okay, you've got to tell me where you are! I don't think I can help you if all we do is talk over the phone!" Sara sighed on the other line.

"The Shepard's Inn… right outside Bishop…"

"Oh, Sara! You're that far away?" Catherine could hear the other woman become even sadder at her word.

"I just had to get away…"

"Okay, well I'm on my way… And I'm taking Nick with me."

"Cath! No, I'll come home soon enough… don't come all the way here!"

"Sara, you're calling me in the middle of the night saying you're not sure about this. What'd you expect me to do?" Sara was quiet for a while, she hadn't thought about it in that way.

"You've got work to do, and so does Nick, and even if he didn't have… I came here to get away from all that, what good would it do to bring it all back?"

"Sara, I'm coming there. And so is Nick. I won't tell him anything, but he deserves to come."

"Okay, but at least wait until tomorrow when the shift is over and the two of you've got some sleep!" Catherine smiled.

"Sure, I'll talk to you later… bye." She shut her phone and realized Warrick had been watching the whole thing.

"Was that Sara? Is she okay? Why'd she call? What's all this about you going somewhere with Nick? Where's Sara?"

"She's a bit… unstable, at the moment. She's at this Inn in Bishop, I'm taking Nick to drive there in the morning. Is that okay, I mean giving thought to the case and everything?"

"Yeah, of course, as long as you bring back Sara in one piece!"

"Where?" Nick asked after Catherine told him she knew where Sara was hiding.

"At an Inn in Bishop…"_ 'Bishop!'_ Nick felt confused as Cath continued "We're going there tomorrow after the shift ends…"

"We?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. Catherine sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Nick, she called me, I'm not even sure she's ready to face you yet but I think you should come anyway." Nick knew there was no way to make Cath to change her mind and let him go by himself so let it go.

"When do we leave?"

"Right after the shift we go back to and pack some clothes then I'll pick you up, we'll take turns driving and sleeping." Nick nodded. He just wanted to get her back home.

Sara stood on the little balcony and looked out to the little town below her. What had she done? She drove here to get rid of all that Vegas stuff, and now she had made the stupid mistake of calling Cath in the middle of the night. Of course that made her worried, that would make anyone worried! Sara sighed. They didn't have to come down here… She could take care of herself, she wasn't a little girl that had gotten lost and needed her mommy and daddy to come and get her home. But still she couldn't help that she did miss them. It had only been about three days since she last saw them, but it felt a lot more than three days. She was just scared to tell Nick, that's all.

Cath pulled over at Nick's house and waited, after just a few seconds he came running down to the Tahoe. He jumped into the passenger seat as Cath gave him a smile.

"Ready?" She asked him

"Let's go." Cath drove in silence and Nick kept looking out the window the whole time. If they didn't stop at all except once or twice for food and slept in the car while the other one was driving the thought they might make it to Shepard's Inn late tonight. After almost four hours they change seats. Cath fell asleep at once and Nick drove a bit faster. At two pm they stopped for lunch. They took two coffees each to save for later. They didn't talk much. Cath wanted to avoid questions and Nick was busy with his own mind. Sometime around eight they switched again. They got closer and closer and Nick couldn't sleep. Cath was only awake because of the coffee and she started talking.

"How'd you and Sara get together anyway? You never told anybody…" She said.

"She was lonely one night, and she called me…" Nick smiled at the memory. He had never seen Sara like that before, the case with the abused woman had really gotten to her. She was scared and Nick was the one who had stood by her side the whole time. One thing had lead to another and the night ended with them kissing.

"She's gonna be fine you know, everybody gets these episodes when they just wanna get away…" Nick looked over at Cath and nodded.

The night was dark. You could hardy see anything in the black room. Sara was lying in the cold bed, looking up the sealing. She was incapable of sleeping. Her mind was filled with unwelcome thoughts. A sighed escaped her lips as she wiped away a single tear. It was probably long after midnight when she heard a car come driving. _'Could it be them?'_ She thought_. 'No, it took me almost two days to get here…'_ When she heard two voices starting to talk she pulled herself out of the bed and walked over to the open window.

"Oh no…" she said out loud when she saw Cath walk into the house. Sara ran back to bed, if they thought she was asleep they would probably not come in.

Nick knocked a bit harder on the door.

"Nick, give'em a break, it's almost four am!" But after a minute an old lady approached them. She was short and her hair was turning grey. She turned on the light and opened the door.

"You almost scared me to death young man! Are the two of you here for a room?"

"No, well yes. We're sorry about the late hour but we need to see a person right away. She told us she was staying hear, her name is Sara Sidle." Cath said.

"Oh, yes, Sara! She's a fine young lady… but I'm not so sure I should let you come in, she is probably sleeping since hours back." The little lady replied.

"Well can't you just let us go up and see if she awake?" Nick managed to say.

"At this hour? Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a room and talk to her in the morning?"

"Can't you just go up and knock at her door, she doesn't sleep much so there's a chance she's still up." Cath gave the lady a charming smile. '_She reminds me of my daughter…_' the lady thought.

"I guess I could do that. Why don't the two of you sit here and wait." Nick and Cath entered the reception and sat down in a sofa. The lady walked up the stairs to the rooms and quietly knocked at Sara's room.

"Sara?" Sara could hear the voice break through the door. She closed her eyes but when the fists knocked harder she couldn't take it anymore. She walked over to the door and opened it.

"Yes?" She looked down at Mrs Shepard who looked a bit scared.

"Oh dear! I didn't expect you to be awake at this hour… But there is a man and a woman here to see you…"

"I know, I saw their car…"

"Oh, so you do know them, I wasn't sure if I could send them up or not."

"Well… can you send up the woman first, I don't wanna face the other one yet…" Mrs Shepard looked suspicious but agreed. Sara glanced in the mirror and saw that she looked horrible. Her hair was fluffy and her eyes were blood shoot. Under her eyes she had black bags. A slight knock at the door brought her back from her thought to reality. She saw Cath's head appear from behind the door. As Cath saw the way her friend looked like she gave out a sighed and walked up to her. Sara looked into her blue eyes and Catherine gave her a hug. Sara gave out the breath she'd been holding for almost two weeks and clung to Cath.

"I'm sorry I ran…" She sobbed.

"It's okay, how you feeling?" Cath pulled away and tried to analyze the look of Sara's face.

"Not that good…" They sat on the bed and talked for a moment about the past days. After almost ten minutes Cath remembered Nick was sitting down stairs waiting.

"I should go get Nick… You think you'll be okay?" Sara didn't move a muscle. She just sat still looking out the window. Then she slowly nodded.

"Yeah…"

"I'll be right outside in the hallway if you need me, just yell…" she joked. Sara gave her a small smile and Cath walked out.

Nick had been sitting in the sofa for ten minutes now. The old lady, Mrs Shepard, had gone back to bed. He was about to go after Cath when she came down the stairs. She had a puzzled look on her face. But still a smile played on her lips.

"You can go up now… Just don't be hard on her."

"Why would I be hard on her?" Nick asked confused.

"Well, just don't be… and Nick, remember that you love her."

"Okay Cath, you're starting to scare me, she's not dying or something like that is she?"

"No, no… just go." When Nick started walking up the stairs he became aware of that Cath was following him.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

"I said I'd be right outside the door, and I will be." Nick slowly shook his head and continued walking. He knocked at the door and opened it slightly. When he saw Sara walking around in the room he opened the door wide and walked up to her.

"Oh my God, Sara! You've no idea how worried I've been! Are you okay?" He looked into her brown eyes and she could see the scared look, he did love her and he had been worried about her. She felt the tears streaming down her face and she tried to stop them with her fists. He wrapped his arms around her waist and slowly pulled her shaking body closer to his. She clung to his shoulder and he could feel his shirt becoming wet as the tears fell from her eyes onto his chest. Nick ran his hands up and down her back, trying to calm her down.

"I'm sorry Nicky…" She mumbled.

"It's okay, everything's going to be okay now… I'm here, it's okay, you don't have anything to be sorry about…" He brushed her hair softly and pulled away slightly. "Why'd you run?" He asked. Sara stopped sniffling and looked down at her feet. She broke away from his grip and walked out to the balcony. Nick followed her out into the cold air. The view was beautiful.

"I needed to tell you something…" she began, but I didn't have the courage to… So I ran. I needed the time, for everything to settle down and to… to think." Nick tried to make eye contact but she kept looking away all the time.

"What were you afraid of?" He whispered.

"Of what you'd think… what you'd say, and do."

"Sara, I love you, more than anyone and anything! You can tell me everything, you know that…" She could feel his eyes on her as another tear ran down her cheek.

"I love you too… I just hope you'll love me after this…"

"Okay, now you're starting to scare me, what's going on? Just tell me." Sara stood there looking out the sky full of stars. She took a deep breath and prepared herself.

"I'm pregnant." She said. _'There, I said it, now he can do whatever he wants, cause I've done my part and told him.'_ Nick stood paralyzed and looked at her. She wouldn't meet his eyes but he knew she was crying. _'Pregnant…' _

"Is that why you ran?" Was all he could get out of his mouth. Sara nodded.

"Mhm…"

"Sara… You didn't have to run away because of that, I love you. And if you're pregnant, with what I hope is my child, than I'll love it too." Sara spun around to face him.

"Well… it's yours." His face broke up into a smile and when Sara saw that she felt another stream of tears, but this time it was out of joy. Nick wrapped his arms tight around her and closed his eyes.

"I love you Sara…"

"I love you too Nicky. She mumbled.

"How long have you known?"

"For almost two weeks now…" Nick let go of her body and looked at her.

"Two weeks? You've been walking around with this for two weeks now? All by yourself?"

"I told Cath three days ago…" Nick smiled and leaned over to kiss her. Just then Cath opened the door to the balcony and smiled.

"Hey, I figured the two of you would be right about done in here… Why don't you two go to bed and I'll go get our bags from downstairs, I'll sleep in the couch."

Sara smiled, she finally felt happy again. While Cath brought in the bags she and Nick crawled into the cold bed and Sara had the first good sleep in weeks.

_**The End**_

Note: Tell me what you thought, please! PS: I'm not from USA, so if the thing about Bishop's not right, don't blame me, I actually don't know where Bishop is…


End file.
